Healthy Weight

Maintaining a normal weight gives you an excellent chance to live a healthy life. Unfortunately, in these days of all-you-can-eat buffets, highly processed foods and TV bingeing, two-thirds of Americans are overweight, 36 percent are obese and even 17 percent of children are obese.

Unhealthy weight contributes to early death, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, organ failure, joint damage, breathing problems, depression and more. What’s a normal weight? That’s a body-mass index of 18.5 to 25. BMI is a measure based on height and weight (see calculator below). BMI is not a perfect tool but it’s a good indicator.